White bread 'mericans

I just got off the phone with a friend who's from Shanghai. Now, he hasn't lived there since '91, so every time he goes home he gets sick too.

We 'mericans are wusses. At least, Dave, myself & my friend are. That said, some of my tests have come back & I'm not growing a 12 foot long tapeworm. More drama later on that front when there's something to say other than, "Erp!"

Here's more pictures of Ha Noi. They're the ones I thought most closely captured the cacaphony of life, of life lived with your front door as wide as a garage door & open to your neighbor's.

But we, as tourists, started from the top of Vietnam, literally & figuratively. Our trip began in Hanoi, the northernmost city, the capitol. We were on the 5th floor of our 6 story hotel - really quite tall for the district. The government is trying to preserve the Old Quarter, so the buildings are human scale. Then there was the fact of our relative wealth. But even as high up as we were, the sounds of life travelled.

It began at about 5am - a horn here, the sound of a motorbike there. Hanoi seems to get going about 6:30am. Milan, Rome - those are early rising cities - 5:30am; Paris - you couldn't find an open boulangerie before 7am, and forget about a cappuccino before 9am.

This is the view from our hotel's restaurant balcony. It's the best picture I've got which shows how narrow, but deep & tall the Vietnamese tube houses are. There's also a lot of use of covered balcony space to capture the breeze.



Hanoi has many tree-lined streets. The banyan trees can get huge.



I thought this picture below was good b/c it shows the height of the buildings. Shops open to the street on the first floor, first room. It also shows how hanging plants were used as sun screens across the front windows of the living area. These homes also have pretty deep balconies.



How dense the buildings are.


Color and sound. The 2nd red scooter in the back - the woman is wearing a face mask. The material seemed to be the same kind used for cloth diapers. In the north, these masks covered just the nose & mouth area & I thought it was to protect against the pollution. In the south, the mask became a head-dress, with a skirt which covered the decollatage & went around the back of the neck. I was later told that was to protect against the sun.



The older houses in Hanoi didn't have glass in the windows.


More shops & older tube houses. They also used hanging plants across the front of the windows to add shade & cut down the penetration of the sun.



Living with your neighbors & yes - that is a flower pot with flowers stuck into the branch of a banyon tree.


Old house & shop filled to the gills in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.






Take the quiet moment where it can be found:



One of the side streets in Hanoi. Private life is relative as it seems one is always being observed.

Also, note how clean the streets are. It was stunning really. As much as would be going on, the streets were cleaned each night & all throughout the day.

I gave in

I ate two Peptos.

Things Which Go Bump In the Night

I've got a temp of 100.8. I've been eating Pepto Bismol since the end of February (I just made it 48 hours, not sure if that's a "good thing." My husband got a nasty infection and my dog died. It hasn't been a good month.

I've started planning next year's trip - Bangkok & Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I'm ticked I missed those places.

funeral procession through the streets of Hanoi

It's great to be able to drink the water again

Wish me luck. I'm working on 30 hours of no Pepto Bismol. Last time the stomach cramps hit, but it could have been something I ate.

The "complimentary" bottled waters in the hotel bathrooms - those are for brushing your teeth, not for rehydration.

Right is left except those times when right is righ

In Hanoi, someone placed the location of our hotel, the Quoc Hoa, on the wrong side of one of the maps.

Street Scenes & Cabling

I work in telecommunications, which means I work with wires and cables and cabling. Cable management & dressing cable - these are to cabling what hair dressing is to heads of hair. My abilities with dressing cable tapped the same vein of talent I have with styling my hair.

I've never been accused of having a good hair day.



Street scene from the Old Quarter in Hanoi.

Those of you who work with cable management, wiring, data centers, networks, or even just have tried to connect a VCR, a DVD player, a stereo & a TV together play "Trace the Cable" with me. These are scenes from various parts of Vietnam. Not being the world's greatest photographer, I don't always get the focus exactly right, but hopefully they can give you a sense of how out of control the phone, TV, power & whatever else cabling was in the urban areas of Vietnam. It looked like I'd been cabling their network.

Sometimes the cable was draped so low I could touch the bottom cables just by walking under them.

Dead cables were oftentimes just cut and left hanging down in the middle of a sidewalk.

The smiling woman below was a fantastic, wonderful guide Thinh Le (in Vietnamese it would be Le Thi Thinh). Email me for her contact info if you're looking for someone who will take you out to eat fabulous bun cha or pho.

This is the remaining gate in Hanoi's original wall surrounding the city.

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But basically, cabling more than graffiti defaced some tremendously beautiful, or historical architectural details.

This is a temple down the street from our hotel in Hanoi.

Cables hanging from all the windows of all the apartments in a building in Sai Gon.














Cable being moved from one location to another - they loop it & then hang it off of a guy on a motorbike.

Finally - one of The Most Popular mobile phone contenders. I swear they were on every street corner.

Come 'n Git It - While You Can

Dave's already said not to do this, but this is what a blog is about: showing & telling. Since the infection consumed such a large portion of our attention, I might as well just get it out of the way and then we're done talking about it.

I've got 1600 pictures from the trip to Vietnam, of which 12 might be worth viewing. I don't really know. I'm just beginning to work on them. But before we get to any of the scenic photos & the promised write-ups, etc. of travel in Vietnam, let's just get the infection photos out of the way. I'm not even going to post any of the hospital photos because the only good one, the one which shows how blue was the blue in the Blue Hospital Room, he's got his eyes closed & it looks like he's just in his underwear.

Once this is out of the way, I am moving on to the more traditional aspects of travel blogging.



This photograph was from March 9th, the day before he was hospitalized. Remember, this started as a "pimple" on the top part of his leg March 4th. By March 9th, his thigh was swollen to twice its original size.



Now Dave has just called from the bed, "Are you posting in the blog, Andrea?"

"Yes." (I tell no lies even if I tell no truths)

"Are you posting the pictures of the infection?" (insert groans which can be heard across the room)

And you all know the answer to that one. Gotta love him, don't cha?

We're home

We made it home last night on the same Taipei-Seattle flight we'd planned on. David's wound looks pretty good. It's still open. We're going to get it checked out today through Group Health, now that we can actually contact them. One of my unposted blog rants was the inadequancy of Group Health's contact means when one is travelling internationally. More on that rant later. Bottom line, Group Health does not have a readily accessible direct means of contacting them when you're out of the U.S.


Dave was taken off of IV antibiotics on the morning of Thursday, March 19th. Yes, that was two days ago. He was let out of the hospital after 3 or 4 days in, but had to be hooked up to IVs 2x a day for drips & wound cleaning which lasted 3 or 4 hours each time. It turns out that something like 8 out of 12 strains of bacteria were resistent to the antibiotics he'd been given, so they changed their IV drip around the 12th or 13th. Then the clean up really began. We'd go in for his morning IVs & dressing change / wound care, then head out & explore Saigon and he'd go back to the hospital in the evening for more drips. I did a variety of things waiting for him. Blogging was obviously NOT one of them.

He was released for travel last Monday, however, it was actually cheaper for us to simply change our booked flights & upgrade the Taipei Seattle return flight home than to use the travel insurance evacuation. I would have had to pay for a whole new ticket. I was not included in Dave's medical evacuation according to the insurance.

Basically, once the insurance dust is settled, there will be a "What I Learned About Travel Insurance - the Hard Way & While in a Third World Country". Bottom line: Always ensure you have $$ on your credit card to pay for hospitalization and return flights. Neither Group Health or the Travel Insurance would guarantee payment to the hospital, so Dave & I paid the whole bill out of pocket. And, as I mentioned before, travelling companions may not be "medically necessary" to travel with the evacuee and so have to be able to come up with the $$ to cover either their own new return ticket, or continue the trip sans the evacuee.

oozing pus now

The surgeon "opened" up the wound yesterday evening. He made a small incision, then took foreceps & moved it around the wound area. It appeared to be separating the skin layers from the muscle. He squeezed out pus. Then, then packed Dave with about 6 inches of gauze. When I talked to Dave this morning, he said it had actually drained quite a bit. I haven't gotten to the hospital this morning.

He's getting really frustrated lying in bed. If he was feverish, unconscious, feeling ill - that would be one thing. But he's in better shape than he was in Hoi An, or even Hue (2nd day). He's also frustrated to be in such an amazing city like Saigon, Vietnam & all he's seen of it is The Blue Room (pictures later).

My wonderful tour contact - Mr. Quoc Minh, of Exotissimo rode me through the streets of Saigon on a motorbike. I was one of the raindrops! After all the landline problems of yesterday I decided to buy a mobile phone. It cost less than the phone bill for all the connected calls who couldn't hear me yesterday.

I called Quoc up yesterday asking to get a guide's help in buying a phone. He offered to come pick me up & help me buy one instead. It was so much fun being one of the hoarde. We rode to a store which specializes in mobile phones. I swami, they had about every brand out there. I picked my Nokia up for less than I paid for dinner. I guess it might have been around $30 or so. I got 150 minutes with that as well. I think. That, or the $9 minute card bought me 150 minutes. I'm not quite sure. I've been going up to Vietnamese people & asking them what things mean. Registration, though, was in English. Email me if you want my number.

Quoc's taken good care of me during this time. I haven't had to worry about accommodations or other arrangements. Here's a BIG KISS to Mr. Quoc Minh of Exotissimo & a "Tell All My Friends" about this agency. It's been amazing.

Ate dinner at The Refinery again last night. One thing Dave & I have learned about travel is that it can be tiring always trying new things. Especially at the end of trips, if we find a restaurant we're comfortable with, we simply go there for our meals instead of trying to go to the Next New One. I'm at that stage now. Beautiful little place with limewashed stucco walls, there's a huge round pass through area. I'd sit outside but I'm tired of sweating, so I go in. The waiters recognized me after night before last. Things like that, plus good wine & the availability of at least a 12 year Glenfiddich, make a restaurant a place to return to when one is tired. It's located in a courtyard. Address is 74 Hai Ba Trung in Q1. You have to walk through what looks to be a terrifying garage entrance, but which is really the entrance to the courtyard it shares with what looks to be two other restaurants.

I'm walking in Saigon alone at 10pm - no problem. It's balmy and loud. They've torn up the sidewalks. What's left of those are filled with parked scooters. Mostly people smile back as I pass by. There's some shops with incredibly detailed wooden ships. I'll take pictures, but Fraser will have to identify the types of ships these people are modelling. They've got sails and lines. How's that for technical detail.

-a

Okay, next time we bring a mobile phone

Well, since Dave is doing better, time for an amusing antecdote. It's a good thing I'm an older single woman wandering the streets of HCMC instead of an older, single man. Dave wandered the streets of Hue by himself the first night in b/c I'd crashed after no sleep the night before in Halong Bay. He told me he'd been propositioned as to his need for a woman, pot, and heroin, but stalwart fellow that he is, he assured me he turned them all down. He said it was downright unsafe for a guy to walk unattended because so many people came up to him asking to service various needs.

I walked around the block by myself here in Saigon & only "saw" what was being offered. The fine art gallery changed from abstract street scenes to full representational nudes of lovely, lovely young women. I wouldn't have been able to compete even when I was 24. This street, Thi Sach, had a few more store fronts open in the evening than in the day. The women are comely here. I hope they're unionized, have a pension & access to adequate medical care.

The land line network here is having troubles with one-way audio into the U.S. I can hear the far end just fine, but they can't hear us here in Vietnam. One receptionist at the hospital moved around like she was trying to pick up a good signal. Uh, no. It's wired up. Calls from the U.S. to Vietnam don't seem to be experiencing the same problem, just out-going from here. Mobile phones are making it through. I was able to call Italy via the land-line, no problem. U.S. lines, though, were intermittent & now, I can't get a line through.

I ate dinner at a little restaurant around the corner from here - The Refinery. It might have aspirations towards the French side of things, but the wine was from Australia. Tasty - finally. Lots of fruit in the bouquet. Had it with some fried sole with home made tartar sauce. The sauce was on the mustardy side. Dave, on the other hand, had lasagna at the hospital. They order in. heh. It was good. Their mozzarella was outstanding in the mozzarella & tomato salad.

I'm moving to the Sao Hotel (aka Star Hotel) tomorrow. I'm emailing the phone number - let me know if you need it.

-a

Dave's better and I'm no longer out of my mind

The doctor had originally thought 5 days of hospitalization. He's now saying all day tomorrow & then outpatient for two, maybe three days. We plan on travelling back to Seattle as soon as the doctor feels comfortable with him flying.

The swelling is almost down. The redness has dropped back to a light pink. It had encompassed nearly the entirety of his right thigh and had begun to travel past his groin yesterday. There is still discharge, but not nearly the same amount. The antibiotics are working - this time. he's on an IV drip for the medications / antibiotics. His blood sugar is elevated, but the doctors are monitoring. It's not actually out of range for his "norm" when not on medications. According to Patsy (sister-in-law who's a 20+year veteran nurse), that's to be expected during infection. So far they haven't talked shooting him up with insulin to drop it, they're just keeping him on meds & monitoring. The traveller's support we have through our insurance is coordinating care.

We'd been to two other doctors before we got to Saigon - one in Hue and another in Hoi An. Dave had been given several regimens of antibiotics & the infection didn't respond to any of them.

Tonight I am at the May Hotel. Tomorrow I move to the Star Hotel, I don't have a phone number yet.

Current plans are that he remain in the hospital today, tomorrow & then begin outpatient treament on the 13th, continuing the 14th. We're hoping to fly home to Seattle the next day, but that is completely based on whether the doctor feels he's ready for the international flight.

Dave's hospitalized

We're in Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City. Dave's small little boil has encompassed his right thigh. The doctors in Hue & Hoi An... The promised reduction in infection never occurred. It kept growing. The travel insurance help people put us in touch with the Family Medical Practice (a private clinic / hospital in Saigon). I'm in the May hotel in Saigon - at least for the next two days.

He's going to be on antibiotic drip for at least the next 5 days as of this writing. Yes, we've been having adventures even while this thing has been happening. I'm just not ready to post the happy stuff at the moment. I haven't since Hue. I've just kept looking at this infection grow. Everything after Saigon has been cancelled at this point - at least I'm not having to negotiate a Visa extension at the moment.

Exotissimo - GREAT travel agents! The gentleman, Mr. Quoc Minh, who made (& subsequently has cancelled) all of our travel arrangements is taking care of my hotel needs and has found where I can make international phone calls at airports. Their guides & drivers have been extraordinary. They've been tremendous fun & a lot of support & help - with pharmacies, calling doctors, updating Exotissimo as to where we were, taking care of lost reservations. I can't recommend Exotissimo enough for the quality of people they've brought into this play Dave & I are going to give a name to. Maybe we should start a contest, "Name This Vacation."

March 7th

Dave was hot last night, but seems cooler this morning. I drew a circle around the infection site last night. It looks less red this morning, but seems to have spread. Our driver should arrive to take us to Hoi An in the next 30 minutes.

March 6th - cyclo through the countryside

I didn't bring our cyclo driver's name with me to make this post, but I'll post later. I love the cyclo. Of course, the two of us do not fit in a single cyclo, so pricing is always per cyclo per person. A cyclo is basically a seat pushed by a many on a bicycle / tricycle. These things navigate through five-way intersections along with buses, trucks, and the motorbikes. The cyclo is a little bit faster than a walk, but not much. It's a chance to cover distance & still see, smell, and hear the world around you.

Our cyclo driver agreed to a full day. They're taking us out to the far tombs. We cycle through villages with roads the size of a sidewalk. These are villages in what remains of the rain forest, among the paddies. We see the banana plantations, the chickens with their chicks, the dogs, the babies, the hills surrounding Hue. It's misty & rainy, which keeps us cool.

Dave's leg is infected. It's covering half the front left thigh. We call for a doctor. He's on antibiotics. Tomorrow we leave for Hoi An.

March 5th - My 48th Birthday

We were sick in Hue. Got colds. Our hotel room is pink & has a heart on the door. It's a comfortable bed, but it's in a pink room. It has a jacuzzi, but we're feeling too ill to do more than shower.

We find another pharmacy. Get some Ameriflu - decongestant, cough suppressant, cough expectorant, fever reducer, non-drowsy, grow wings & fly like a pig medication. We go back to bed & sleep for 4 hours.

Took a cyclo to the citadel & the forbidden city. Hue - the city of the Tet offensive. Amazing city by the river. So much is still here that I think many friends would recognize. I hope the pictures turn out.

Dave had a leg hair which created a small pimple. He's wearing shorts. His leg is irritated.

March 4th - it's still raining so we're still in Halong Bay

I did wade for a moment in the south China Sea yesterday - up to my knees. There was a terrible dog fight between 3 dogs on the beach they dropped us off at. I forwent the opportunity to go to the fishing village yesterday or climb through the cave today. I hate travelling in crowds & took the opportunity to be on the quiet boat & watch the flying fish. It was really the only time I saw birds - starlings out at dusk eating the insects.

We drove back into Hanoi. Thinh, our guide, stopped by a "pharmacy" and got us some antihistimines for my allergies which seemed to have kicked up. The pharmacy is in worse shape than many of the shops I've seen in the Old Quarter - a jumble of boxes & medications. They open the boxes, read the directions & point at my nose. These are not trained pharmacists. The baby is crawling around on the counter. More on medications & pharmacies later.

The Hanoi airport - internal departures gates / lounge is packed with people. The bar is a jumble of empty bottles of Johnny Walker & Hennessey. I order a drink. All they have left is Hennessey. I order a Hennessey - do I want a large or small. I start paying attention. They're washing glasses in a plastic tub on the bar counter. We're waiting on the bar stools - hoping that one of the comfortable chair / couches opens up. They announce the Saigon flight is boarding. The place clears. We take a couch.

A middle aged woman brings a spit of brownish liquid up in a cognac glass along with a water for Dave. I ask how much. She says 150,000 Vietnames Dong. We pay. The cognac is watered down, as in "I taste more water than cognac" watered down. Even Dave can take a swig. We ask to look at a menu from another person's table. The Hennessey was only 50,000 VD & the water was 20,000. We won't ask the "waitress" for "help" for the rest of the waiting. At least when I go pick up a beer and only have 20,000 dong for the 15,000 beer, the bartender offers me a bag of potato chips to compensate for the lack of any change coming. I tell her to keep the potato chips.

Our flight is to Hue, not DaNang like I've been thinking all day long. It's packed. There are only4 Vietnamese people. The rest are German, French, Swiss, Italian, Spanish, American, British, Australian, and if I've left a nationality out - I apologize.

March 3rd - if it's raining we must have arrived in Halong Bay

The "junk" was lovely. Only 10 cabins and no day trippers. There's 400 licensed junks to ride around in Halong Bay. Some of them carry more than 20 cabins + daytrippers. Not the Halong Ginger. We got one of the Deluxe Rooms - a room with a queen size bed. Our window opened up to right over the water. The karst formations were amazing. It was foggy & very romantic in a drippy sort of nose way.

Was up all night - couldn't sleep. I hadn't set the ac right, then I started sneezing, congestion... I'm going down down down

March 1st - I think

I'm doing quickie posts - reverse date because too much time has passed & I'm forgetting things. It's been a week, I see, from my last post. Connections in Hanoi were "difficult". The internet "shop" was the bottom floor of one of the Hanoi tube houses. The keyboards were scary, at the last.

During one of these days, either the first or the 2nd, we were taken on what was supposed to be a half day outing to a pagoda. It was a Monday. We went to a silk factory first, then the pagoda. The silk factory still had some of the original looms set up & working - looms operating off of cardboard key codes - the original computer program! You know I was so into how the 1s & zeroes created the beautiful patterns. Pictures of the mechanism to follow.

The pagoda - I don't even remember its name.